The 51-year-old Assange was arrested by British police in 2019 after he had taken refuge for almost seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy building in London. Since then he has been held in Belmars maximum security prison.
The founder of WikiLeaks julian assange, who is fighting not to be extradited to the USA by Britain, appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, as the ECtHR itself confirmed yesterday Friday.
In June, British authorities approved the extradition of Assange, an Australian citizen, to the US, where he faces 18 criminal charges, including espionage, for posting classified diplomatic and military documents to the WikiLeaks website.
His lawyers have appealed to Britain’s High Court, asking that the decision to extradite him to the US be overturned. The first hearing on the matter is expected early in the new year.
The 51-year-old Assange was arrested by British police in 2019 after he had taken refuge for almost seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy building in London. Since then he has been held in Belmars maximum security prison.
His legal team appealed against Britain to the ECtHR, which may request that he not be extradited to the US.
“We can confirm that we have received the appeal,” the Court said in a statement.
Stella Assange, Julian Assange’s wife, said she hopes the ECtHR will not have to consider the WikLeaks founder’s case and that the matter will be resolved in Britain. If his case ends up at the ECtHR “it will be a sad day and a great disappointment”, he emphasized.
For his part, Julian Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, said earlier this week that he hoped US authorities would want to avoid the case going to the ECtHR, as European media and public opinion were more favorable to Assange in relationship with Britain and the USA.
“I imagine that the US wants to avoid that (…) they are trying to extradite a publisher from Europe for publishing revelations about American wars, while the US is asking Europe to make all kinds of sacrifices for the war in Ukraine,” he pointed out. Shipton.
This week major media outlets that initially cooperated with WikiLeaks wrote an open letter calling for the prosecution of him to stop.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also discussed the issue of Assange’s continued detention in meetings with US officials this week, saying he wanted the matter to be closed.
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